STUDIES OF BUNCH ANALYSIS 1 – VARIATION WITHIN AND BETWEEN PALMS

Author(s):
CORLEY, R H V*

There is little information on variation in composition between different bunches from the same palm. In this study, bunch analysis was done on all bunches from three plots of 20 palms, over seven years. There were significant differences between palms for all bunch components. Palm means for oil/bunch were correlated with fruit/bunch and oil/mesocarp, and less strongly with mesocarp/fruit. A previously unreported correlation between palm means for fruit/bunch and oil/dry mesocarp was found; this appeared to be a genetic effect, as there was no such correlation within palms. There was also a correlation between palm means for fresh fruit bunch (FFB) yield and oil/dry mesocarp. Between bunches within palms, the most variable bunch component was fruit/bunch; for this and for oil/mesocarp the within-palm component of variance was much larger than the between-palms component. For fruit composition (mesocarp, kernel and shell/fruit), the between-palm variance was larger. Within palms, mesocarp/fruit tended to be negatively correlated with fruit/bunch. Shell/fruit was significantly correlated with kernel/fruit in most tenera palms, but not in most duras.